Although the concept of integrative medicine makes sense, one should not have a "Pollyannish" viewpoint about the subject. It is not always easy or therapeutically effective to use homeopathic and conventional therapies concurrently or even in sequence. Sometimes a patient, with the advice of his or her physician, must decide to use one approach or the other.

Ultimately, the role of the clinician is to inform patients of the risks and benefits from the various potential treatments available. Sadly, while there may be a body of research to show that certain conventional medical treatments are effective in treating a specific disease, a symptom, or a laboratory reading, this does not necessarily mean that this treatment actually improves the overall health of people. The same limitation can be said about homeopathic research to date. There is presently inadequate research about real healing.

It is indeed difficult for clinicians to provide patients with hard or fast data for making easy decisions. Clinicians must, therefore, be humble, and they should remember the words of Hippocrates who insisted that physicians should: "First, do no harm."

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